At some point, every pickleball player has wondered or asked, "How did pickleball get its name?" As the sport continues to grow by leaps and bounds, it's a safe bet that scores (if not hundreds) of people are asking that question each and every day.
There are only two versions of "The Story" about how pickleball was named. The simplest and most common rendition of "The Story" is that pickleball was named for a dog called Pickles. Pickles would grab the ball and run away with it. EZPZ. A second, more complex version of "The Story" claims pickleball's name derives from something known as a "pickle boat".
So which is true? And how can we separate fact from fiction?
In a nutshell, all credible evidence point to the "pickle boat" version and not the dog Pickles.
For anyone willing to dig deep enough, ample information is available verifying that an arcane term known to college rowing teams (AKA: crew) indeed provided inspiration for the name "pickleball".
Everyone accepts the historical fact that Joel Pritchard invented pickleball in the mid-1960's. Of that there is no doubt.
Pritchard himself said, "We needed a nutty name like Pickle-Ball, but, no, the dog was named after the game. A reporter came through and was doing a national story on the game, and somebody told him that story. Everybody said, “Shut your mouth. It’s a good story. It works better, leave it alone.” It’s like a lot of stories."
Pritchard's wife stated in an article for the Parkersburg, West Virginia News and Sentinel, "The name of the game became Pickle Ball, after I said it reminded me of the Pickle Boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats. Somehow the idea the name came from our dog Pickles was attached to the naming of the game, but Pickles wasn’t on the scene for two more years. The dog was named for the game, but stories about the name’s origin were funnier thinking the game was named for the dog."
Source for both quotes: http://pugetsoundblogs.com/bainbridge-conversation/2009/01/16/the-doggone-lies-about-pickleball/
This blog will soon explore the topic in much more depth.
